Cisco's fiscal year has ended on a low note. Net income for its fourth quarter totaled $1.1bn, a dive of over 46 per cent from the same quarter last year.
But CFO Frank Calderoni prefers to look at the year in total. As he pointed out, the quarter-to-quarter match-up is "a tough comparison, given that Q4 '08 was the highest …

Huh?

Who said anything about Cisco "going". They still made a profit and I do believe that they have more cash money than god at the moment in a good position to ride out the storm.

I say all that despite hating their products and pricing with a vengeance too.

On a related not, why is it that companies expect to make record profits every year and if they fail to do so it is seen as a good time to immediately panic and shed staff? Surely being able to turn any sort of profit in tough times should be seen as a good thing and not some sort of omen of imminent demise.

@AC 07:43

Did you mean to write: "widely regarded as the bIGGest producer of network kit out there."? Goat Jam is correct that there's no chance of Cisco disappearing any time soon, but they haven't developed any decent new product in ages. Instead they get their best technology by buying small startup companies.

Their high-end boxes aren't competitive and their security kit (firewalls and IPS) is well behind the curve (except where they've bought stuff in - see above). Their bread and butter switches and routers are over-priced but still sell well to their established large- and medium-sized customers who need central management of their network kit.